Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to Free ACSJobs.net website

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on
I don't think that a couple of weeks is nearly enough time to tell you whether there is a market for an ACS jobs board. I, for one, have a strong interest in seeing a market grow because I hope to sell a lot of ACS-based solutions and I'm not a programming shop. (I design the business stuff and leave the programming to partners and subcontractors.)  I sell almost exclusively to the HR and training departments of large corporations. In that sort of an environment, the sales cycle is 3-6 months. IMO, we are just getting to the point now with ACS 4.0 where it's feasible for somebody other than aD to sell the ACS into a corp. If you do the math, that means it may be 3-6 months before I'll be looking for programming talent. (I have a few advance leads that may close faster, but those are already promised to people.)

I don't know what the sales cycle for Internet jobs is; my guess is that it's significantly shorter. Still, two weeks is a very short period of time for a test.

BTW, I will have a much easier time selling to corporations if I can show them that there's a healthy market of ACS talent out there. They don't want to be dependent on me forever and their IT departments often would rather hire expertise (either on a consulting or a permanent basis) than train their existing staff to maintain and upgrade the system.

There is a potential snowball effect here. You should stick to your guns for as long as possible.